]]>With each passing year, project management is flexing its roots. This year holds sharp focus on people and technologies to deliver successful projects. Even the market experts predict significant amount of growth in project management industry.

In this article at TechRepublic, Moira Alexander shares a list of upcoming project trends that will design a better future for organizations.

Trends Shaping 2018

Even in 2018, big organizations in diverse fields continued facing the same challenges as they have been facing for years. However, by embracing change and bringing new project management trends in place, surpassing any challenge would be easier.

Fast Picking Trends

If the project managers adopt these fast-emerging trends than it would open doors for better work opportunities to them. Therefore, here is a of major project management trends to watch over:

The EPMO model: The Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) aims to align all projects, programs, and portfolio activities with organizational objectives. In the past, this strategic PMO was allied to big organizations only. However, moving forward in 2018, organizations from any industry can adopt this model to lead project management.

Adoption of formal PM tools: With the availability of reasonable web-based project management tools and software, even startups and small companies will integrate PM tools. 2018 will see rapid growth and adoption of formal project management tools and processes. It will reduce the failure rate of startups by managing time, objectives, and resources efficiently.

Analytics tools: The business analytics tool will help project teams to analyze and pinpoint right project trends. It will enable the teams to identify project risks and make desired plans to improve their project performance. These tools will help companies to locate key performing areas and customize their products as per the user’s need. In a bid to lead in the right direction and gain better project insight, more companies will take advantage of this powerful tool in 2018.

Remote project management: 2018 will see major push towards remote project management from both project teams and organizations. With millennials turning out to be the biggest assets for companies in North America, the employers had to consider their comfort quotient in mind. This trend is fast gaining attention of other organizations and countries. The added benefits like high performance, reduced sick leave, employee satisfaction and compact logistics have stimulated the shift towards remote project management.

Emotional intelligence: 2018 will see more emphasis on emotional intelligence in hiring. Organizations would prefer to absorb self-motivated, skilled, self-aware employees who aims to develop better project outcomes. This year will continue throwing uncertain challenges and to make the teams more defensive, recruiters will hire resources that can exhibit emotional intelligence.

Changing trends bring freshness and new zeal to score high and challenge old concepts. In this article, the author aims to lure attention towards change in project management. Read the original article at link below:

]]>Reshaping the PMO Role in the Digital Erahttps://pmojournal.com/2018/02/21/reshaping-pmo-role-digital-era/
Wed, 21 Feb 2018 01:01:52 +0000http://aits-org.aits2018.wpengine.com/?p=86313Digitization is not just a new tablecloth on an old table. Digitization is a brand new table, and everything needs to match the new décor. In an article for TechTarget, CEB/Gartner’s Matt McWha describes how the PMO will evolve in this new digital setting. This New Home McWha finds that most PMOs have been designed …

]]>Digitization is not just a new tablecloth on an old table. Digitization is a brand new table, and everything needs to match the new décor. In an article for TechTarget, CEB/Gartner’s Matt McWha describes how the PMO will evolve in this new digital setting.

This New Home

McWha finds that most PMOs have been designed to account for consistency, which is good, but designing for speed and flexibility will be more important moving forward. In turn, the business advantages of maintaining a PMO are evolving. Right now, some of the major benefits of PMOs are that they provide a neutral perspective, have good organizational influence, and provide critical insights to stakeholders. McWha says PMOs should leverage these factors to accomplish three new tasks:

Orchestrate delivery and team workflows

Develop and enable digital talent

Support digital transformation

About that first point, McWha writes this:

With its enterprise perspective and stakeholder insight, the PMO is ideally suited to design and facilitate interactions among increasingly diverse types of work and stakeholders. PMOs can play critical roles in promoting the adoption of new delivery practices (e.g., Agile, DevOps) and will need to design the mechanisms for coordination between teams working with different methodologies. This involves spotting and managing interdependencies that can derail ongoing work and reducing the amount of effort required for interaction between teams, other governance functions and third parties.

PMOs should also encourage increased product ownership and provide specific, digital-oriented learning opportunities for project management staff. And when sufficiently strategically aligned, the PMO will be able to assist with enterprise-level capital allocation and measuring performance of the product line.

]]>The Utility of a ‘Lightweight’ PMOhttps://pmojournal.com/2017/12/21/utility-lightweight-pmo/
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 01:00:26 +0000http://aits-org.aits2018.wpengine.com/?p=78421In just a few words at his blog, Adventures in Project Management, Kerry Wills muses on the changing size of PMOs. In his experience, PMOs (or program management offices, at least) have shrunk. He has gone from PMOs with each function having a dedicated person to a four-person PMO for a nine-figure portfolio. Thus, Wills …

]]>In just a few words at his blog, Adventures in Project Management, Kerry Wills muses on the changing size of PMOs. In his experience, PMOs (or program management offices, at least) have shrunk. He has gone from PMOs with each function having a dedicated person to a four-person PMO for a nine-figure portfolio. Thus, Wills wonders if PMOs are becoming so mature that they can get by with fewer resources, or if “lightweight” PMOs are just becoming the new trend. Which strikes you as more likely? Or is there an element of truth to both scenarios?

]]>Leadership Is a Spectrum of Strengths and Weaknesseshttps://pmojournal.com/2017/08/23/leadership-spectrum-strengths-weaknesses/
Wed, 23 Aug 2017 01:00:51 +0000http://www.aits-org.aits2018.wpengine.com/?p=78320The trend these days is to bemoan “managers” as old-fashioned and to hail “leaders” as forward-thinkers. That being said, job listings for managers are still more than double that for leaders. In a post for HotPMO!, John McIntyre explains that the semantics are ultimately trivial. But if you are going to think of managers as …

The trend these days is to bemoan “managers” as old-fashioned and to hail “leaders” as forward-thinkers. That being said, job listings for managers are still more than double that for leaders. In a post for HotPMO!, John McIntyre explains that the semantics are ultimately trivial. But if you are going to think of managers as doers and leaders as visionaries, then it is important that you embody the qualities of both.

McIntyre says leaders answer “what” and “why” questions, and managers answer “how” questions. Leaders inspire and motivate, and managers develop the processes by which the vision is delivered. These are all good attributes to have. Likewise, no one sort of leadership role is without its weaknesses. McIntyre describes shortcomings of a variety of leadership roles:

Coaches are prone to overanalysing perfomance gaps and can overcomplicate even the simplest tasks. Mentors and Managers both have a tendency to micromanage, leading to frustrated employees. Trainers need to be careful not to assume everyone learns the same way and understand that training cannot fix every problem. Modern business require modern managers who are able to adopt all five roles and know when to use them to maximum effect.

]]>The Next-Generation PMO Is Coming After Your Portfoliohttps://pmojournal.com/2017/07/19/next-generation-pmo-coming-portfolio/
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 01:01:17 +0000http://www.aits-org.aits2018.wpengine.com/?p=78302There is no aspect of business that is not heading toward its next big evolution. PMOs particularly seemed poised to transform into more robust entities that mean more for the business. In a post for the PM Perspectives Blog, Lindsay Scott shares the ideas of PMI’s Andy Jordan on how the next generation of PMOs …

]]>There is no aspect of business that is not heading toward its next big evolution. PMOs particularly seemed poised to transform into more robust entities that mean more for the business. In a post for the PM Perspectives Blog, Lindsay Scott shares the ideas of PMI’s Andy Jordan on how the next generation of PMOs will be different.

PMO&PPM

Right now, you might group PMOs according to whether they function in strategic, departmental, specialized, or support capacities. Regardless of function, Jordan believes portfolio management will be at the core of all future PMOs. In fact, PMOs might become the nexus for all portfolio management. In several cases, this would be a welcome upgrade, because many organizations treat portfolio management as if it is just something that emerges amid other processes. Portfolios inadvertently get executed without actually being managed.

PMOs can champion and control real portfolio management. Along with this, they will delve deeper into change management, financial management, and enterprise resource management. And about enterprise resource management, Scott says this:

This is about the PMO working closer with Procurement and HR – not just in planning for resources in the future ahead but also in the impact of new projects which in turn produce new products to market. Is the organisation ready to launch a new product – do they have enough sales people? Is there enough people in marketing available to work on it? When the PMO is the portfolio management hub they see everything from idea, to planning, to execution and delivery. They, more than anyone else in the business, can see the launch date of product X one month and product Y a month later.

In the future, a network of PMOs with unique functions will exist in the business, but portfolio management will still be at the heart of it all. And at the center of the network, a “strategic PMO” will provide planning, execution, control, and value. As a result, increases will occur in areas such as team empowerment, accountability, and departmental integration.

]]>Whatever You Do, Don’t Call It a PMOhttps://pmojournal.com/2017/03/09/whatever-dont-call-pmo/
Thu, 09 Mar 2017 01:01:48 +0000http://www.aits-org.aits2018.wpengine.com/?p=78192What’s in a name? When it comes to PMOs, a lot! Have you been paying attention to the PMO space recently? I have. More and more organizations are moving away from the title PMO for the organization that facilitates the planning and execution of business strategy. I’ve seen “business transformation office,” “strategic planning office,” “strategy …

]]>What’s in a name? When it comes to PMOs, a lot! Have you been paying attention to the PMO space recently? I have. More and more organizations are moving away from the title PMO for the organization that facilitates the planning and execution of business strategy. I’ve seen “business transformation office,” “strategic planning office,” “strategy execution office,” “enterprise strategy execution team,” and on and on… anything but PMO, please!

Why? PMOs have gotten a bad reputation.

Why? Because many of them haven’t been delivering in a high-impact way.

There are some PMOs out there that are rock stars! I know—I’ve seen them myself. And then there are the rest of them… too much time, money, and resources spent on building templates and process or running through the steps of a project without actually delivering maximum impact for the organization’s investment. In the eyes of the business leadership, they take too long to get set up and start seeing value. The business gets bored/impatient/frustrated and moves on.

This is where doing things “right” conflicts with getting results. I talked about process getting in the way of progress in this article that I encourage you to read. I dive deeply into the specifics of that problem we create for ourselves when we put getting the tools and templates created before we start having an impact.

Now, I want to go beyond that. Let’s say we are delivering our projects on time and within budget, even meeting the business requirements. Great! Now why isn’t the business happy?

We need to turn our heads to an even bigger differentiator between those PMOs that will survive the next several years and those that won’t. The data is there—the PMO isn’t about project management anymore. It’s about delivering the maximal impact possible based on the investment, in other words, return on investment (ROI). It’s not just how we are doing the work or even that most of it is getting delivered. It’s also about focusing our energy on the right things.

Imagine this. You have a project portfolio dashboard and 80% of the projects on that dashboard are green or going as planned. We are rocking and rolling! But what if the 20% that aren’t moving forward are the ones that have the biggest impact on the organization’s bottom line or ability to meet strategic objectives? Eighty percent of the impact your PMO could be having on the company is tied up in 20% of the projects and they aren’t getting done. Not looking so hot now, huh?

That 20% that can move the company forward should get first dibs on focus from the organization (money, time, effort, etc.).

And guess what? It’s your job as a PMO leader to help make that happen. You have to make sure that the right conversations are taking place to facilitate getting resources realigned, information where it needs to go, and decisions made. It’s also your job to make sure that you handle the “don’t touch my project” conversations and behaviors that are prevalent whenever you have limited funds and resources—which is always. The ones where project managers are fighting each other for resources when the priorities are clear.

You know what I’m talking about. They make it look like resources they have look fully utilized even if they aren’t, just so that they don’t lose them when they need them… and who could blame them? A good project manager will fight to the death to make sure their project gets all the resources they need to make sure their project gets done. Their job performance is judged on whether or not their projects are performing.

Maybe being a good project manager is not enough. Maybe we need more in our PMOs of the future.

What if, instead, we allowed project managers to be in a safe collaborative place? A place where the PMO has their back. A place where the PMO could decide that PMs are judged on their ability to help the entire portfolio perform optimally, even if it means their own project gets shuffled lower on the priority list.

Crazy idea, I know.

You have a role in determining where PMOs go from here. We’ve seen that they aren’t getting much love from the business community. But we’ve also seen this rebirth in titles for these organizations so as to make it clearer that this is about the business and delivering business value. But I would like to go even further. It’s not about what you call it. It’s about being as impactful as possible on the business. It’s about maximizing return on investment.

Or as my friend Mike Hannan has suggested, maybe the next iteration of PMOs should be called RMEs: ROI Maximization Engines. What you call it doesn’t matter. What it delivers better.

]]>The Expanding Strategic Potential of PMOs in 2017https://pmojournal.com/2017/02/28/expanding-strategic-potential-pmos-2017/
https://pmojournal.com/2017/02/28/expanding-strategic-potential-pmos-2017/#commentsTue, 28 Feb 2017 01:01:30 +0000http://www.aits-org.aits2018.wpengine.com/?p=78186PMI’s Pulse of the Profession is a page-turner every year, with insights useful to people at all levels and types of involvement in project management. It can be particularly useful to PMO leaders looking to see where they stand and where they can strive to improve. Of the 3,234 global professionals surveyed, here is the …

]]>PMI’s Pulse of the Profession is a page-turner every year, with insights useful to people at all levels and types of involvement in project management. It can be particularly useful to PMO leaders looking to see where they stand and where they can strive to improve. Of the 3,234 global professionals surveyed, here is the data on PMOs and EPMOs.

The Facts

In 2007, 61 percent of organizations had PMOs, compared to 71 percent today. Half of organizations with a PMO also have an EPMO. PMOs and EPMOs help establish procedures for identifying benefits, and monitoring progress throughout the project life cycle and beyond. Where strategically aligned EPMOs exist, 33 percent fewer project failures occur and 38 percent more projects meet their goals.

Digging deeper into the numbers, 62 percent of PMOs are department-specific, regional, or divisional. Of these PMOs, 38 percent consider themselves highly aligned with organizational strategy, 50 percent grade themselves medium, and a meager 12 percent score themselves low. The stats for EPMOs are nearly identical with regard to alignment.

Fifty-eight percent of EPMOs believe they are primarily focused on business strategy, and 40 percent of the rest of PMOs are focused on business strategy. The other PMOs and EPMOs are primarily focused on tactics or operations at the moment. These numbers could stand to improve but are not unhealthy.

PMOs and EPMOs fulfill many different roles for their organizations. Here is a sampling, in order:

Only 21 percent of organizations have standardized project management practices used company-wide, but that is better than the 7 percent who have no standards at all. Perhaps improving these numbers should be the next great undertaking of PMOs and EPMOs. After all, when there is a shared language, there is shared understanding.

]]>https://pmojournal.com/2017/02/28/expanding-strategic-potential-pmos-2017/feed/1The Most Important Services a PMO Provideshttps://pmojournal.com/2017/01/26/important-services-pmo-provides/
Thu, 26 Jan 2017 01:00:14 +0000http://www.aits-org.aits2018.wpengine.com/?p=78148What is the one thing your PMO does above all others that makes it an indispensable part of the organization? This question has been asked before, and Lindsay Scott discusses some research from 2015 in a post for the PM Perspectives Blog. Respondents of a survey were asked to select their top five PMO services …

]]>What is the one thing your PMO does above all others that makes it an indispensable part of the organization? This question has been asked before, and Lindsay Scott discusses some research from 2015 in a post for the PM Perspectives Blog. Respondents of a survey were asked to select their top five PMO services from a list offered.

From those choices, the top services wound as the following: (1) methodology, process, and standards, (2) management reporting, (3) project management tools, (4) portfolio management, and (5) planning. These are not exactly shocking results, though it is worth noting that “governance” came in sixth place. Benefits management amusingly came in last place.

Scott goes on to say this:

Benefits Management in last place certainly reflects anecdotal evidence that a lot of organisations are just not carrying out benefits management and realisation within their programmes. Knowledge Management [at 15th place out of 19] and how it manifests itself in the organisation and PMO is just not as important as it should be. Are we stuck in the ‘how to make lessons learnt really work rather than just capturing things that never get used?’ The [survey] also highlighted the role the PMO could play in Training yet today it is not deemed as important enough.

And it is important to remember that you do not need to go it alone when it comes to finding and providing great service. Computer Aid’s ProjectOffice+ service can amplify your project oversight: http://www.projectofficeplus.com/

]]>Which meteors are coming to humble your PMO this year? Or rather, which PMO improvements are you bold enough to undertake? In a post for the PM Perspectives Blog, Lindsay Scott considers the myriad challenges that PMOs might face this year:

Survival Strategies

Some of these challenges pretty much speak for themselves, while others warrant some explanation. What really stands out though—and what makes PMOs a unique challenge in and of themselves—is that they are always having to justify their reason to exist. That in turns mean they must always be eager to adapt to business changes, namely, the presence of agile in the organization.

But even the PMOs that are not fending for their lives still have plenty of room to grow and improve. For instance, Excel might be the PMO tool of choice for supporting major projects. Surely more applicable software solutions exist. Here is what Scott says about improving key PMO processes:

Every PMO needs a MOT [moment of truth], a health check occasionally to ensure that what they do well continues to go well and never become complacent. One of the key areas is the methodology used on programmes and projects – often the most visible and used by such a wide variety of people in the delivery organisation. The PMO is the custodian of the methodology so it stands to reason that its contents are something which are regularly reviewed by the PMO.

]]>https://pmojournal.com/2017/01/20/big-challenges-pmo-2017/feed/2Project Management Offices Used to Full Extent Less Oftenhttps://pmojournal.com/2016/12/22/project-management-offices-used-full-extent-less-often/
Thu, 22 Dec 2016 01:00:03 +0000http://www.aits-org.aits2018.wpengine.com/?p=78118Computer Economics has offered up a concerning nugget of research about PMOs: Their use is declining, and the number of organizations making full use of PMOs is really declining. In general, the importance of a PMO as a best practice has fallen to a “middle” level, whereas it was deemed one of the most critical …

]]>Computer Economics has offered up a concerning nugget of research about PMOs: Their use is declining, and the number of organizations making full use of PMOs is really declining. In general, the importance of a PMO as a best practice has fallen to a “middle” level, whereas it was deemed one of the most critical practices in the past. The research hypothesizes that this could be a result of businesses doubling down on agile. Why? Because agile development is typically seen as not playing well with traditional PMOs, though more ideas are arising all the time on how to marry the two.

The Computer Economics article offers up this remark on the continued importance of PMOs:

One of the advantages of having the PMO as a distinct group is that it provides focus. The PMO provides an environment where IT professionals who show promise as project managers are trained in the principles and techniques of project management. The PMO also selects project management tools such as project planning and scheduling systems so that they are available for rapid deployment when new projects are launched.